Butchering: Ideal place to separate the feet?

KittyHawk

Just born
Joined
Jun 19, 2019
Messages
4
Reaction score
3
Points
9
We are running into issues where sharp bone ends on the legs are puncturing our freezer packaging. We are currently using a cleaver to chop the legs off. Is there another tool or another method that would make for a cleaner cut, cleaner finished product?

Thanks!
 

TaylorBug

Loving the herd life
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
52
Reaction score
68
Points
113
Location
southern Indiana
I only butcher about half a dozen at a time and my neighbor helps me out since he’s more adept at butchering than me. He taught me to sever the tendons in the joint and then bend the foot backwards to break the bone. Sometimes it takes a bit of work to get the foot completely severed from the leg but we've never had problems with puncturing the packaging
 

Pastor Dave

Herd Master
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
1,845
Reaction score
3,723
Points
323
Location
Crawfordsville, IN
Unless you're wanting a "handle" to hold while eating, you're not even getting that much meat in the area in question. You could remove that lower leg bone at the thigh and not lose much meat. BUT, all the other suggestions I have read on here are good too. Deboning takes more time and effort, but nothing left to puncture the packaging.
 

Pastor Dave

Herd Master
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
1,845
Reaction score
3,723
Points
323
Location
Crawfordsville, IN
The other thing I forgot to add is, if you have two hind legs with sharp tips, I will pair them and stab the sharp bones from one into the meaty thigh of the other and for best descriptive purposes it creates a "69" shape o_O
 

Latest posts

Top